A Walk in the Zoo

THE award-winning Singapore Zoo is one of the best zoos in the world. Since it opened in 1973, it has followed a unique concept where there are no cages — over 300 species of animals roam free in open and naturalistic habitats.

The animals live in spacious landscaped enclosures, separated from the visitors by moats. Walk-through exhibits like the Australian outback exhibit ensure an incredible experience in which visitors can have kangaroos eat out of their hands. The zoo has a pioneering ‘Jungle Breakfast with Wildlife’ programme in which visitors eat breakfast in the company of orangutans.

The oldest zoo in the world is located on the grounds of a World Heritage site — the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria. Tiergarten Schönbrunn or Vienna Zoo was founded in 1752. One of the rare zoos to house giant pandas, the Vienna zoo was voted Europe's best zoo in 2009 and 2010.

One of the most popular zoos in the world, the Berlin Zoological Garden was literally raised from the ashes after it was bombed during World War II. With more than 1,500 different species and around 17,500 animals, it boasts of the largest collection of species in the world. Among its celebrity inmates were Knut, the polar bear that was hand-reared by the zookeepers after being rejected by his mother at birth and Bao Bao, the oldest male panda living in captivity until he died in 2012 aged 34.